This manuscript was sent to me by a teacher who worked in a “no excuses” charter school in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York. Her descriptions of the classroom practices there are vivid and often chilling. The children are treated in a manner that demands robotic responses. What is demanded of them is total obedience. They are being trained like seals or parrots, not educated. The account is long, but worth your time.
Teaching Practices and Procedures at a New York City Charter School: An Inside View
by Annabel Lee
March 14, 2014
annabel.lee.1000@gmail.com
March 14, 2014
For general release
Teaching Practices and Procedures at a New York City Charter School: An Inside View
by Annabel Lee
Third grade is a great year. Children are introduced to multiplication, vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds, independent reading skills offer a comforting and educational view into new worlds. This past August, after completing my Master’s in Education the previous January, I was excited
to be hired to teach third grade in a charter school in New York City that has high expectations for its students and for its teachers. I did not meet the expectations of the school and the school did not meet mine—so I resigned. Although this is one school and one teacher’s view, my experiences there may help others take a hard look at the education of children.
Third grade children need to come away from the classroom with a love of learning, a curiosity about wide-ranging subjects, the desire to write, an interest in reading, the skills to make reading effective and the ability to do basic computation: addition, subtraction and the times tables. At the same time an effective educational approach will build strong character traits, the ability to focus on a task and complete it independently, the desire to share with others and interact in kind and compassionate ways, with a positive attitude toward achievement and the common good. Some say third grade reading scores are the basis for designers of prisons to predict the size of `future inmate populations. In any educational environment the first principles to instill in the classroom are respect for self, respect for others and respect for the environment. In this school a “behavior management system” is in place that does not support these goals. Children will not succeed in getting into college and in the job market because they respond to authority by being silent and walking in public like robots.
When I pursued my Master’s degree I was exposed to many theories of child psychology, child development and educational theories. Nothing I learned prepared me for the challenges at this charter school. The school is a not-for-profit corporation serving an economically disadvantaged community in New York City. As with other charter schools, a substantial part of its support and revenue come from the New York City Department of Education. The approach of the school is largely set by the principal: High achievement goals largely fueled by a tone of competitiveness and unique methods of control. Like other charter schools, the teachers are not members of the teachers’ union and discussion of this subject is discouraged. Through most of the day every day my class was observed by the principal, various members of the administration and other teachers.
In August I was hired as one of three third grade teachers. I was the newest to the profession. One of the other two third grade teachers was also in her first year of teaching: She had been an associate teacher in this school the previous year. Thus the third grade teacher with seven years’ experience was the lead teacher for the grade. We had two associate teachers: one taught only science, one taught only social studies. As I understood it the associate teachers were there to assist us, however this was later called into question.
Setting up the Classroom
On the first day of school, I was told which classroom would be mine and, thrilled, went up to the third floor to see it. The pine floors shone, newly refinished, the walls had fresh paint, a wide whiteboard covered the front wall, and tall old-school windows brought in lots of light with an unobstructed view of sky. I was told to cover the windows with paper so the children would not be “distracted” by the view. I decorated two corkboards and the windows with crepe paper borders—I was told to take the crepe paper down. The lead third grade teacher and the principal offered advice that was often conflicting and sometimes too late. The lead third grade teacher told me that I should put up “anchor charts,” which she had not yet done. She said the school would furnish little in the way of supplies for the classroom. There was no list of what the school would provide, nor a list of what the parents were expected to supply. She said she had purchased most of her own supplies. The first evening I bought “anchor charts,” posters that addressed third grade core curriculum, and other supplies. Two weeks later the principal told me I should have made the anchor charts myself. I was told that I should not display student work on the freshly painted back wall, so I bought cardboard presentation panels. I bought binders I had been told I needed. I bought push pins, glue sticks, a number line, an alphabet line, plastic bins, baskets to hold homework sheets, name labels, pocket charts, a classroom thermometer, dry-erase boards, sentence strips, dry-erase markers, pencils, erasers and more.
The principal told me that the lead third grade teacher was my go-to person for any questions I might have. “Any time you have a question, just ask me,” the lead teacher said on several occasions. Every day I asked the lead teacher to come into my classroom to help me prepare the room. She did not have time. She was occupied with preparing her own room.
I attended eight days of professional development, classes for teachers, before the students came to school. On the sixth of those professional development days, after I had set up my classroom, the principal told me that the classroom was a disaster. A teacher, who was now an intervention specialist and had used my classroom the previous year, was assigned to come in and help me. The arrangement of the desks was not acceptable. I hadn’t left a large open area in the front of the classroom where students could sit on the floor cross-legged in front of the whiteboard and receive direct instruction from me — a teaching policy that had never been mentioned. This physical relationship, standing so close to children looking down at them sitting cross-legged on the floor, was the first hint I got of the authoritarian atmosphere of the school.
When it came to equipping my empty room, I had ideas from classrooms in many schools I’d taught in, done observations in, and visited over the course of several decades. One of my models was the first grade classroom of an experienced (over 30 years) teacher at a private school in downtown Manhattan where I’d taught a class for second graders on weekends. This teacher, like the lead third grade teacher where I was teaching and many others I’d met, had dozens of her own books in the classroom. For the first couple of weeks I was given no books by the school, and then I was given about fifteen titles of reading books, mostly non-fiction, in quantities ranging from 3 to 15 of each title: none in a sufficient quantity to give every student in the room. Besides what I’d purchased, I brought things I owned that I thought were needed: paper trays, a collection of stones (some labeled with their names and where they can be found, some semi-precious stones), three mature plants, a stool, colored pencils, tape in a dispenser, a stapler, paper clips, about six cartons of books, a couple of extra bookcases, and much more. I own many children’s books and this was a limited selection. I had the idea that a “print rich environment,” encouraged in many schools, meant that the classroom should be full of colorful, entertaining books for children.
When the principal came in the room and saw those books she was horrified. “Some of these books are from the 19th century,” she said, shocked. Indeed, this period is the “golden age of children’s literature.” There were books from the L. Frank Baum series including The Wizard of Oz and Queen Zixi of Ix, there were Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, Pinocchio, Grimm’s fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, John Ruskin’s King of the Golden River, George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin, and more. There were books from the 20th century including a stack of Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeline books, Curious George books, Dr. Seuss books, P.D. Eastman books, Beatrix Potter books, William Steig books, and more. There were books from the 21st century and craft books for making origami, paper pop-ups and more. There were books about identifying trees, guides to birds and rocks and wildflowers, books about telling time, math puzzle books. And, since I have studied French, German, Russian, Spanish and Italian, there were illustrated children’s books in all of those languages. There were a few illustrated books in other languages as well.
The principal asked me to take all my books home. I discussed this with her and with various members of the administration. The director of curriculum took a look at selected books in my collection that were “recent” and in “perfect” condition. She chose about 40 books to stay in the classroom (about half a carton out of the six cartons I’d brought): books on art and the Curious George and Dr. Seuss books. The children took interest in these books and borrowed them for silent reading.
Classroom Rules
The first couple of weeks the students were there would be devoted to instilling classroom rules. So, to prepare, I made lesson plans that incorporated Aesop’s Fables to bring up issues of behavior and values and generate conversations about the classroom culture. It turned out that the priorities were discipline and schedule, the highest values silence and obedience instead of moral and ethical rules, as portrayed in Aesop’s fables. Slow learning, learning at an individual pace, adapting to student needs were insignificant concerns.
The behavior management system used by the school is called Whole Brain Teaching, created by Chris Biffle in 1999. The techniques seem to be focused on memorization and repetition. The teacher is supposed to be entertaining and use a lot of energy. The teachers I observed, both in person and in online videos, seemed like square dance callers, auctioneers, carneys in the circus or entertainers on a stage. The fast-talking, call-and-response approach and exaggerated, attention-getting gestures seemed inappropriate. I had difficulty modeling this method of discipline because I was horrified by it, shocked that it was considered the norm and contrary to the principles I had learned studying to be a teacher. There are videotaped examples of this method in action with students ranging in age from kindergarten to college. In every video the teacher makes rehearsed gestures and barks out scripted phrases and the students bark back set responses in the same tones using the same gestures.
Making children sit still and listen, avoiding dangerous situations, creating a sense of order and civility was presumably the goal. In this case behavior management is a mild term for describing a system of regimentation for the sake of control. It is authoritarian and haunting. Students are expected to walk in the hallway like robots: silent, hands straight by their sides, a puff of air in their cheeks referred to as “the bubble” so that they cannot talk, in two straight lines
The first day the children came to school I enlisted one of the two associate teachers to assist me in the morning so that the students and I could experience a proper modeling of the words and gestures used in Whole Brain Teaching. By lunchtime I was told that my morning had been a “flop.” According to the principal, I had “relinquished my authority” by inviting the associate teacher to assist me. The associate teacher and I had collaborated, both standing at the front of the class, both engaged with the class. I participated in the demonstration of these methods, I just hadn’t done it alone. I had made a point of getting this participation of the associate teacher cleared with the lead third grade teacher. The principal asked me to leave my classroom to observe the lead third grade teacher teaching a lesson that day. Later that day I was asked to observe the other third grade teacher teaching
The principal had me observe other teachers during the following days and then attend a “corrective action” meeting at the end of the week. Probationary close scrutiny was scheduled to end two weeks later. In this “corrective action” meeting, I was reprimanded again for having relinquished authority of my classroom to one of the two associate teachers available to the three third grade teachers. I was asked when, during a lesson, I employed the rules for listening. I was asked whether I had any rules for listening.
I regularly applied the rules I had been told to apply. These rules were posted in the room. I had been instructed to follow this behavior management system with fidelity and I tried to. These Whole Brain Teaching rules, which were posted in every room in the school, were:
- Follow directions quickly (the accompanying gesture is putting hands together in front of you and making a swimming movement like a fish moving forward)
- Raise your hand for permission to speak (the accompanying gesture is, of course, raising the hand high)
- Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat (the accompanying gesture is raising the hand high, with a scurrying gesture with pointer finger and middle finger added)
- Make smart choices (the accompanying gesture is tapping the pointer finger to the head)
- Keep your dear teacher happy (and the accompanying gesture is to frame the face with the thumb and pointer fingers of both hands and smile broadly).
Students had to practice the rules daily. First they had to name the rule, such as “Rule Number One,” then say the rule, such as “Follow directions quickly” and use the appropriate gestures. These rules were reviewed frequently every day and whenever a student broke one of them—most frequently when a student was enthusiastic about speaking out in class. When a student spoke out of turn, the teacher was supposed to say, “Okay class, what’s rule number two?” Then the class spoke the rule in unison, making the gesture. If all students did not participate or some did not make the gesture, the whole class had to repeat the rule again. All the rules were reviewed at the beginning of class and on average about 20 times during the course of the day. As a result, most of the lessons consisted of repeating the rules and doing the Whole Brain Teaching gestures.
In addition to these four basic rules, there were procedures to be written, posted, implemented, practiced, and monitored. These included:
- Lining up
- Getting the attention of the teacher
- Walking into the classroom
- Morning activities when entering the classroom
- Passing in papers and homework
- Sharpening pencils
- Getting into groups
- Walking to lunch
- Exiting the classroom
- Throwing away papers
- Putting a heading on a paper
- When leaving for special subjects like art and music
Students had to be reminded of the procedures every time they were to follow that procedure, for example leaving the room orderly with chairs pushed in and things put away. Procedures had to be practiced repeatedly until performed perfectly. And individual students could earn points for performing a procedure perfectly, for example getting into line exactly when and how they were told to do so.
Teachers had to check the clock frequently. The principal asked me to set my phone alarm at 5 and 10 minute intervals so that the children would always be on schedule with lessons and changing rooms. Periods were 40 minutes long including the 5 minutes it took to walk from the classroom to other rooms in the school for specials. I was told that if the class was more than five minutes late to a special subject, the class should be turned around and go back to the regular classroom and miss the special. Also, if my class was not behaving perfectly in the hallway—silent, hands by their sides, shirts tucked in, “holding the bubble” (cheeks puffed up so they were unable to speak)—I was to turn the children around and have them repeat that part of the walk through the hallway until they got it right. Students were not supposed to be called students or children, they were to be referred to as scholars. “Walk like a scholar” was a phrase used in the hallway. All this discipline in the hallway made it almost impossible to get from one classroom to the next on time.
Another part of this behavior management system is the scoreboard. It’s a script followed repeatedly all day. The teacher puts a two-column chart on the board first thing in the morning. A smiley face and a frownie face are at the top of each column. One script for getting the attention of the class is when the teacher calls out, “Class, class,” and the students respond, “Yes, yes” with the same intonation. If the students quiet down and turn their attention to the teacher, the teacher makes a tally mark in the smiley column. Then the students must respond with an enthusiastic, “Oh yes” with an accompanying gesture of lightly clapping the hands and the hands make wide circles in opposite directions. If, on the other hand, they remain noisy despite calling back, “Yes, yes,” or they don’t make the accompanying gesture, there’s a tally mark put in the frownie column. The children are then supposed to respond with a groan of disappointment using the right intonation and gestures. The teacher is never supposed to allow more than three tallies to be ahead in either column, and never more than about 20 smileys and frownies over the course of a day. These restrictions made it an inaccurate way of recording student behavior. The scoreboard is not kept to account for student behavior. It is instead a visible tally showing that the teacher was paying attention to behavior. The teacher also keeps a separate, private tally sheet recording how often this scoreboard is used as a behavior management tool and how often other tools are used. For example, there’s the “hands and eyes” tool where the teacher says “hands and eyes” while gesturing with folded hands stretched in front of her. Students are expected to fold their hands on their desks, turn their eyes toward the teacher and respond, “Hands and eyes,” in unison. When this tool is used a mark is made on the teacher’s private tally sheet.
Another tool was a “behavior thermometer.”
- Green, the bottom of the thermometer, represents a good day. A typical comment to the class would be, “I need to make sure that if you go home on green, you deserve it”
- Yellow represents some misbehavior and disruptions in the classroom and two or three warnings
- Orange represents a student who continues to misbehave and this student would have to miss out on privileges
- Red represents a student whose parents would be contacted and the child would have to write a reflective essay about why they were in the red zone
- Blue, the highest level on the thermometer, represents worse consequences: possible suspension, a meeting with the dean of students, other penalties
These color determinations were recorded twice a day in a “thrive log.” This was sent home with homework assignments every day. So if a child was green and on good behavior all morning and then was on yellow behavior and not so well behaved in the afternoon, these were both noted on the “thrive log.” Parents who read the “thrive logs,” which were sent home every day, complained when their children received a poor behavior color.
Table points are another reward system. Clusters of four or five desks together were considered tables. Tables are given special privileges for good behavior, for example being allowed to drink water from the fountain in the hallway. One example of good behavior was when the floor underneath students’ desks was absolutely clean, with no fallen scraps of paper or dropped pencils, and those tables should get extra points. The associate teacher led the students in naming tables. She made a score sheet that was posted on the wall and tables competed for points. The children chose competitive names: Popular Kids, Money Tree, Rich Kids, for example. Why couldn’t the children celebrate each other’s triumphs, meet whole-group goals, and function as a supportive community instead of competing?
The noise level in every classroom was also regulated with a system. The sound levels were classified as “ladybug” (totally silent), “buzzing bee” (the sound of quiet talking among students) and “roaring” which was never supposed to happen and only referred to when students were making too much noise.
When any children in the classroom were tired or unruly or distracted, the entire class suffered. The rules had to be repeated, the lesson interrupted to enforce the behavior code, the poorly behaving students had to be singled out and marked on the behavior thermometer, points were given to the teacher on the scoreboard. As we know there are many types of learners: visual, auditory, kinesthetic. There are children with learning disabilities, ranging from stresses they bring to school from difficult situations at home to visual problems to challenges in their cognitive or physical abilities. And, of course, there are differing personalities, some are outgoing, some are withdrawn, there are many personality types. In a classroom where every child is expected to mimic rote phrases and repeat formulas, individuality and differences among students are not respected. Choice, the ability to make decisions, and free will are negated by this approach. Following procedures and being obedient took priority over the mastery of skills, the children’s responsibility for their education and my responsibility for my class. Using these techniques to control student behavior encouraged students to be subservient, obedient, unfeeling and, in a way, invisible. Students did not feel engaged in learning.
Classroom rules can be a creative topic for students. In other classrooms, I’ve engaged students in the activity of generating rules. I’ve used various rules as suggestions to begin discussions, for example no winning, no failing, self-discipline is better than discipline, do your best work and others. I have also tried to inspire children to find rules that made them feel safe and creative. Students often come up with rules that promote harmony in the classroom like no hitting, no running in the hallway, no copying, no stealing. They don’t want difficulties in their own lives and they’re not just trying to please the adults when they come up with these rules.
Students were expected to stand up and “mirror” instructions using a Whole Brain Teaching technique at the beginning of lessons. They used “mirror talk” – repeating verbatim what the teacher just said. After “mirroring” some snippet of knowledge, for example “9 x 3 = 27” or “adverbs modify verbs,” they had to return to the carpet and have a mini-lesson related to that fact, using “Turn and Talk,” when students repeat the information to another student sitting near them, and “Teach/Okay,” when students repeat in unison verbatim what the teacher just said using the same tone of voice and gestures. Every word, every gesture is supposed to be done exactly so, no variations. In a class using Whole Brain Teaching, every few minutes you hear the teacher say, “Class, class” and the class responding, “Yes, yes” then the teacher says, “Hands and eyes,” and the class responds, “Hands and eyes,” silently putting their folded hands on their desks and looking at the teacher, tracking the teacher with their eyes wherever the teacher moves around the room. If any student is not sitting properly, silent, hands folded, the teacher says, “I need you to sit like a scholar.” Then the teacher says, “Mirror, mirror words,” and the teacher runs her hand across her mouth like zipping it shut. When the teacher says, for example, “How do we use math,” and pauses, the students repeat, “How do we use math,” and the teacher then says, “Every day,” and the students repeat, “Every day.” Then the teacher claps three times and says, “Teach,” and the students clap three times and say, “Okay.” This directive to “teach,” preceded by a formulaic pattern of clapping that the students mimic, followed by the students saying the word “okay” is a basic Whole Brain Teaching technique. Students then repeat what the teacher said using the “buzzing bee” level of talking which is allowed in the classroom for this activity. Each student addresses a partner using the same words, the same intonation. There is no intelligence involved on the part of the students, no critical thinking skills engaged, no independent thinking, no creativity. In this example, what follows is the students taking turns saying, “How do we use math every day?” first one student in a pair, then the second one in the pair, the students facing each other for this part of the lesson. Then the teacher says, “Hands and eyes,” and the students are quiet again, facing the front of the room, with hands folded.
As suggested by the principal, I participated in a “livestream” real-time online seminar with Chris Biffle, the originator of Whole Brain Teaching. He taught a new variation on the “Class, class,” “Yes, yes” tool. The teacher says, “Class boom” and on the sound boom the hands are folded. The class responds by saying, “Yes boom” and on the sound “boom” the students fold their hands. Biffle suggested other variations such as, “Class chicka boom,” “Yes chicka boom” and “Class bah bah boom,” with “Yes bah bah boom” as the response. Biffle suggested “Class bitty boom” and “Class boomtastic boom” as well. In this live seminar Biffle suggested teachers use two-sentence microlessons such as, “Nine times three boom” and the students respond “27 boom.”
The administration of this particular charter school strongly encouraged every teacher to use these methods and, in my case, I was observed and criticized so frequently that I had no choice but to incorporate Whole Brain Teaching in my day-to-day lessons. There were observers in my classroom most of the day every day.
As you can tell I wrote copious notes about what went on. The principal once said, “You write a lot of notes. Then what do you do with them? Do you read them?” Indeed I did read my notes every night, and reviewed the earlier ones, trying to grasp what was going wrong.
I was at the school for 13 hours a day generally, and I was criticized for being at the school too late in the evening. Some of my daily tasks, at home and while still in the school building, were to enter grades in the computer system, create charts, email parents, write new lesson plans, review previously prepared lesson plans for the next day, prepare model writing assignments so that the students could do exactly what I had done, prepare materials and more.
In any school, the principal can make teaching satisfying or unbearable. The support that was lacking is a balance between criticizing what the principal was unhappy with and complimenting what she wanted to see more of. The compliments were missing. I was criticized for just about everything I did, and for what I didn’t do. Encouragement is important. The criticisms and discouragement made it impossible to think of trying out new morning routines, offering differing rewards to students, securing greater educational resources, trying new approaches, even simply following the lesson plan.
At the end of a day before a holiday I had my most moving experience with the children. At dismissal time I said to the children, “I’m going to miss you all over the long weekend.” One of the more rambunctious girls raised her hand and said, “That makes me feel loved.” I was very touched and asked the class if that was true for anyone else. All the children in the class raised their hands. It was one moment when I knew I must be doing something right.
A few lessons and how unacceptable they were
The topic of “personal narrative” was in the third grade lesson plan for the first month of school. To prepare the students for writing, we read a story that was a personal narrative. We talked the author’s interests and where the story took place. We talked about what a personal narrative is. The students did some writing in class. One student asked if she could continue working on hers at home that night. I said, “Of course.” Several other students were interested in this as well. Next day eight children were enthusiastic about sharing the writing they’d done with the rest of the class. I chose only three to use the time available wisely. The lead third grade teacher, who was one of those observing my class that day, challenged one of those students, after she’d proudly read her piece, with questions including, “What makes you think that’s a personal narrative?” and “Why did you choose to write about your favorite things?”
This lesson was again criticized at a meeting. I said we’d discussed the characters and setting in the story we’d been reading as a model of a personal narrative. I was interrupted in this description of the lesson to be told that “characters” and “setting” are subjects covered in reading classes and not in writing classes. The lead third grade teacher said that my error in teaching this class this way hurt her feelings because she cares so much about literacy.
Another lesson I proposed was that students would introduce themselves to each other and to me by creating oral histories in our classroom. For this lesson the genre of biography would be introduced through the National Book Award-winning book about Claudette Colvin who, at age 15 and years before Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat on the bus and was the first person arrested for bravely challenging the discriminatory laws about segregated seating on buses in Montgomery, Alabama. I felt that this lesson would engage the children in a positive way: get them asking questions and doing responsive writing, starting with day one. The lead third grade teacher told me that this was not okay, because if the students interviewed each other it would be a writing assignment and, according to her, the students weren’t “ready” to do a writing assignment.
The process of repeating rules and managing behavior got in the way of lessons. In a math lesson we worked on place value, a concept introduced in second grade. I felt that students needed to participate one by one in answering questions aloud. Thereby I could determine which students could apply the concepts and which students were still struggling with comprehension. The demands of the Whole Brain Teaching framework and the daily schedule meant that this kind of class discussion was not possible.
On another day, in response to a story we were reading, a student brought up the term “bullying.” Here was a teachable moment. Here was a key subject brought up by a student. No discussion was possible because of the schedule and I was asked not to bring up the subject on the next day because it was not part of the lesson plan. Students did not have the opportunity to come up with questions and have them answered. There is no space for student curiosity in a classroom regulated like this. Their questions and their thoughts don’t matter: Only the curriculum and the rules matter. There are no open-ended questions.
In every class there was a poem posted on the wall. For my room I chose the William Carlos Williams poem “This is just to say.” One morning we read it. I talked about the author. He was from Paterson, New Jersey. He was a doctor and in those days the whole family went to the same doctor. He loved to write poems and he wrote stories too. He wrote about his life. I asked them to think about what was going on when he wrote that poem. The students were engaged with the lesson and, after I’d read it once, every student in the class wanted the opportunity to read it aloud. Several did so, very well, and after each reading we discussed a different aspect of the poem. We did a close reading. What was it about? Students came up with lots of ideas. The plums were being saved for breakfast, possibly. Was the poem about eating breakfast? The word “breakfast” was in the poem. We had to think about whether the author was telling us what time of day it was. We talked about the sounds of the words. We looked at the word “icebox,” discussed what it meant and came up with more words that are a combination of two words. One student suggested “pancake.” This lesson was criticized by a member of the administration who observed the class. She said the poem was inappropriate for third graders. She said the students obviously didn’t understand the poem, which surprised me because the classroom conversation had been so rich. She said that discussing alliteration and imagery was too advanced for these students.
I felt silenced: I could offer no wisdom, no teaching techniques, no ideas for the classroom. My sense of self-worth was challenged. I had no autonomy in creating either the content or the style of my teaching.
The criticisms took many forms. In a note to me, the principal criticized the fact that a student’s “chair dragged and made excessive noise. You accepted less than perfect.” In another instance I was told to use math tools that were not available in the teachers’ storeroom, although the other third grade teachers had found some. I was advised that if I did not find them I should make them. On another day the principal told me to ignore the lesson plan developed in collaboration with the lead third grade teacher. It was a reading class. I had already taught five days of lessons from the Pearson reading book and each one built on the last, according to the way the textbook and the teacher’s guide were designed. The principal asked me to read through the first pages of the textbook where there were cartoons and short punch lines about the subject areas (cause and effect, compare and contrast, and so on) to be covered during the entire year. This review would certainly take more than one class. The other two third grade teachers hadn’t reviewed these pages of the textbook. Now our class would be days behind the other third grade classes.
I was told that the lower performing students should not be part of the whole class discussion of the stories in the reading textbook and they should be listening to the stories from CDs individually using earphones. They would miss out on the points other students brought up about the stories and they would be essentially penalized for their lower skills by being separated from the other students in the class.
Many of the teaching programs used by the school are online, although the classroom had only two computers, one of which never worked, and the computer lab is shared by the entire school. The school had a goal of making technology available to more of the students more of the time. When I was there access was extremely limited.
Differing Approaches to Education
My positive feelings about the school were destroyed by a process of relentless bullying. The principal interfered with my diligence in preparing daily for the job and replaced it with the insecure sense that I was always doing the wrong thing. One of the rude comments the principal made during the first week students were in school was that she is not an employment agency, she is there for the kids.
The principal told me one day that I was “spiraling downward.” Children in my classroom were not out of their seats, wandering the room or the hallways, children did not have dangerous objects nor were they threatening one another. My classroom was a lively environment where children interacted with each other, where conversations were free flowing, where books were read, where math was being learned and reviewed. I enjoyed the hum of activity with the occasional reprimand to a child whose noise level or activity was beginning to disrupt other students. I preferred that to a classroom where students were obediently sitting at their desks, hands folded, repeating set phrases by rote and watching me intently the whole day long. I didn’t seek obedience, I sought student engagement. I spoke to the children as equals—to demonstrate my respect for them as people. This attitude is opposite to the kind of control I was supposed to exert in the classroom.
One of the acceptable ways to test student knowledge used by the other teachers was to give them “Jeopardy” type quizzes. “Jeopardy” would be fine if it weren’t so competitive. I was not interested in having the students compete with each other. My favorite games were different. For example, we had the game “sounds the same, spelled different.” First one person came up with a word and I’d ask the class how to spell it, what it meant and to use it in a sentence. Then I’d ask them to come up with a match and they’d come up with a homonym (like “sale” and “sail) or a rhyming (like “cat” and “fat”) or alliterative word (like “skill” and “full”). These were whole class activities. Everyone was a winner. My aim in creating activities was for the students to collaborate on solutions to problems.
Character education is one of the stated aims of this charter school. However the focus on competitiveness seems to favor the sort of character development that supports a dog-eat-dog approach. The focus of the teacher’s attention is watching whether students are conforming to behavior routines, rather than areas of child development and individual children’s needs. Creativity and leadership are not acceptable character traits in a system like this and the spirits of the children are suppressed with the behavior expectations.
My last day there, when I handed my letter of resignation to the principal, she said my class that morning was better than she’d seen before. This could not have been true. My class was very agitated that morning because of an altercation between one of the students and an associate teacher. No one wanted to settle down and most students were talking about the confrontation that had happened earlier.
My view of education is diametrically opposed to what goes on in this charter school. I am a strong supporter of the opinions and strategy advocated by the New York Coalition of Radical Educators (NYCORE). The teaching practices I encountered at this school did not reflect the principles of that organization and I recommend that the documents provided by used as guidance for any reforms in education in the City of New York. In the charter school I worked in it was not okay for me to be a proponent of any philosophy of education. The goal seems to be to create a culture of obedience and authority. Individual moral responsibility is replaced with loyalty to the school’s methods. This helps loosen the moral inhibitions against misbehavior, violence and unchecked competitiveness. Behavior I saw in the playground during recess certainly backs up this premise. Students are encouraged to be more competitive rather than to collaborate. Children are not given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own education by exploring sources on their own. In my view student-led learning will always be more successful than teacher-led lessons. This job unfortunately made me feel like I don’t ever want to do what I love doing—teaching elementary school children.
Annabel Lee
annabel.lee.1000@gmail.com
Thank you for your insightful essay. Somewhere, children will be blessed with you as a teacher. You care enough to challenge, encourage, and listen. You demonstrate character by example. And you find those unscripted teachable moments and teach. I am sorry for your experience, but wish you well. Our children need educators such as yourself. Blessings to you.
What a chilling account. I kept expecting to read “The clock struck thirteen.”
exactly
Wow. It will take me a while to think about all of this but I applaud you for doing the right thing for those children as much as you could. I am so sorry you had to go through that and more sorry for those children. Thanks for giving us another tool to use in the fight for good instruction. I will share your story.
“Keep your dear teacher happy” — reminds me of the brainwashing scene from Zoolander.
I am speechless at that rule and although everything in the school is pseudoscientific, I wonder where it came from?
It sounds like it came from North Korea, or someplace similar.
This is common in many schools, this weird pseudoscience. It comes from people who get their doctorates and then market them as researched base, after paying someone in the statistics department to curb the numbers so that they will support their theories. Then they market said thesis as a new and innovative approach or technique that is research – based.
YUP. North Korea. The militarization of 3rd grade. This account is chilling. The people running this school should be tried for child abuse and barred from coming within a mile of a school.
Or North Korea’s “Dear Leader.”
Sounds like what I imagine schools in North Korea are like! Some other school will be lucky to find you, Annabel.
HA! I made my comment above before reading yours!
I also taught at a charter school in Michigan. Under supplied, located in a building that had been mothballed for years by the district that had owned it until sold to this charter. I often wondered how it could have passed the building inspection. I too was criticized for not following a script. So saddened to see these methods are still being used.
Whole Brain Teaching, or Whole Brainwash Teaching?
I’m happy Annabel escaped from this behaviorist boot camp with her health and sanity intact, but fear for the children who remain, treated like lab rats.
All in all you’re just another brick in the wall.
Welcome to Camp Re-Education. We hope you enjoy your stay.
Because if you don’t you will, we guarantee it!
When I read this all I can think is “Homeschool now”
Not really possible for most parents. Many have to work, and even those who can have a parent at home are not certified teachers.
I know believe me if I could be doing it I would be. I have to work too. Sad. I feel sad for the kids that go to schools like these – what is their recourse?
“Procedures had to be practiced repeatedly until performed perfectly”
Obsessive/Compulsive??????
You know what kind of personalities will be attracted to positions of power in “schools” like these, and what kind of scandals will result from their presence there, doing what they do.
The Dolores Umbridge Technique
This is not education. It is indoctrination. I am so sorry for Annabel and wish her the best IF she can find a decent place to be a teacher. Otherwise perhaps all the great teachers who are leaving because they can’t take it will get together and find a way to create their own Charter Schools and show how great education is not mind-numbing. Or this nightmare will end. Please share this article. How parents would want their kids in a school like this is sad. But if this is better than the alternative, what is that like I wonder. (My “hypothesis” for that last comment is that perhaps it is a “safe” place and that is the paramount goal in a terrible environment where life is not safe….I don’t know the area or the children who attend this school, but I am trying to figure out why someone would send their precious child to such a place….other than they were fed the “kool-aid”. This is frightening. Compare this to fabulous schools where nothing like this takes place. So sad.
“The goal seems to be to create a culture of obedience and authority. Individual moral responsibility is replaced with loyalty to the school’s methods.”
And with this phrase, the entire reform movement is summarized quite neatly. This type of “education” is quickly spreading throughout the land. The Differentiated Accountability team sent to my “F” school from the state DOE would applaud this nightmare school’s methods since they are quite similar to what they proposed to “fix” our problems.
I absolutely refuse to follow these horrifying methods that abuse and demean children in the service of standardized test scores and big data.
I applaud and salute Ms. Lee for her testimony and witness to the atrocities of charter school abuse of minority and poor children.
Thank you so much for this detailed account, Annabel.
Unfortunately, I cannot write anything else because I have to go throw up my breakfast now.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
One of the more depressing aspects of this “teaching” style is that the “reformers” would NEVER tolerate this in the schools their children attend. I would never tolerate it in the schools my children attend. But, if you are training future proletariat, it is perfect. Better to avoid having children read Dickens or Orwell, for fear they might recognize themselves.
The argument is that “those kids” need that kind of “teaching” because they haven’t had much or any discipline or educational enrichment at home, so they’re not “ready to learn and they need strict discipline at school to create an environment of safety. It’s amazing how often I hear those sorts of justifications from people who actually know very little about education or child development.
Indeed. This school is the polar opposite of my own children’s school. One shouldn’t have to be able to afford tens of thousands of dollars a year to receive a humane education in this country.
js, Dienne and Emmy: it is truly painful to respond yes, yes and yes to your comments.
And just what do the leaders of the “new civil rights movement of our time” ensure for THEIR OWN CHILDREN while they are mandating docility and low-level skills training for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN?
Winterim, at Harpeth Hall [Michelle Rhee]:
“Begun in 1973, Winterim is a three-week program of on and off campus opportunities meant to broaden the intellectual horizons of our students. Taking place every January, Winterim has become a hallmark of Harpeth Hall’s innovative curriculum. ”
And for just a bit of the terrors those ill-fated advantaged tykes will endure:
[start quote]
Winterim offers students the very best in experiential learning, creating for them a chance to see their academic studies take a tangible, dynamic form. They are immersed in environments where they use language skills during a home stay in France or Argentina, math skills to design a model home, analytical and science skills in a Cryptography course, or writing and communication skills at a local or national news station.
During Winterim, juniors and seniors have traveled to Argentina, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Qatar, South Africa, and Spain. These academic trips and cultural exchanges have fostered a deeper understanding of the world and the world’s needs.
In New Zealand, students studied marine biology, ecology and native cultures while participating in service learning. In Japan, students studied the art and culture of that country, in South Africa, students were immersed in service learning and issues of global poverty. In England, Greece, and Italy, students experienced the rich history and culture of civilizations that have so impacted and shaped our own American heritage. In Argentina, France and Spain, students were immersed in the language of the three countries during home stays and while interacting with their exchange hosts at local schools in Bonpland, Paris and Malaga.
[end quote]
Link: http://www.harpethhall.org/podium/default.aspx?t=151822
Rescue missions are being organized post haste. Volunteers?
😜
Heartfelt thanks to y’all and most other commenters on this thread.
😎
North Korea, anyone?
Note, also that these are apartheid schools:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-26/new-york-state-s-schools-most-segregated-in-u-s-report-says.html
According to a report from UCLA’s Civil Rights Project….
The uneven distribution of students in New York, which has increased over the past 20 years, is being driven in part by New York City, which has more than a third of the state’s students. More than half of the city’s 32 community school districts are “intensely segregated,” and ****a majority of charter schools are so-called apartheid schools, with fewer than 1 percent white students, according to the study.**** Schools with mostly minority students have less-experienced teachers and inadequate facilities and resources, said Gary Orfield, one of the study’s authors.
That is a horrific story and I am so glad you chose to leave. I feel terrible for the students who are forced to endure this type of “schooling”. I just finished reading a book about the rise of Nazism in Germany. Many of the methods used on the school age children then are being used in your old school now. Terrifying!
You know North Korea mentality is similar to this type of training. Everything our great country USA was built on suddenly needs to change now because we seem to be in an era of time where “reform” seems to be the buzz word. But why? Why try to “fix” something when its not broke? The United States of America became what it is because of what we did/do. Losing, failing barbarian countries for years practiced this charter type of educational mentality and it produced nothing but more dictators and created monster personalities around the world of people who want nothing else but to destroy things.
Annabel, I’m sorry you had this experience. I wouldn’t have survived long there! The school sounds like PBIS on steroids, No-Brained Teaching, and school climate hell.
I’m curious why behaviorism is so prevalent in schools now. Does anyone know? Why did PBIS emerge so strongly and so widely? There seems to be a drive for Pavlovian measures to gain compliance, thus neglecting and negating children’s intrinsic drive. Why is that?
Power and control. Promoting absolute obedience. We don’t want anyone questioning the right of the 1% to rob us blind, do we?
$$$$$$$$$
I tend to think it has less to do with money and more to do with the sort of patronizing, racist and classist beliefs of the sort suffered by the Irish and Italian immigrants of the 19th century. – considered non-white by the English American oligarchy of the time.
“Those people” don’t know how to raise their children properly so we (educated, middle and upper class white folks) need to teach their children what their parents neglect to do. They live in chaos with parents who don’t care so we have to impose order so they will turn out right.
It fits the corporate mentality quite well but I’m afraid it goes far deeper than that. Many people otherwise identified as “liberal” hold these beliefs. They are just more careful about what they say out loud.
I’ve too much to say so I emailed you, Annabel. Its far too hauntingly familiar and I never worked in or near NY.
I might be wron but I do believe you, Diane Ravitch, mentioned behaviorism in one of your books. Its not a new idea or notion or implementation.
Amti, behaviorism is an early 20th century idea. Nothing new. It is often called “Taylorism” for its association with Frederick Winslow Taylor. He believed that carrots and sticks are what motivate people best.
I guess they probably don’t like this kind of stuff.
“The New Games Book and its companion, More New Games, were resources developed for the “New Games” movement which began in the late 60s to encourage people to play non-competitive or friendlier games. Many of the “New Games” may now be seen played, in their modern variants, by church youth groups, summer campers, and gym students.”
There’s a better world out there somewhere.
Public vs private, education vs business, humanity vs profit, teaching vs controlling, we, citizens of the modern civilization, should empower our right to vote the GREAT representatives who truly care for our children’s well-being in education.
Whom do we blame for this disastrous “Whole Brain Teaching?” I admire Ms. Annabel Lee’s courage to quit her dream of teaching in the wrong institution, and to write the truth of today public teaching style. Back2basic
Yep, get “these kids” regimented earlier, making the transition to incarceration that much easier. The culture of low expectations takes many forms, including masquerading as high ones.
Chilling account. It sounds like something out of a manual for creating a fascist state. Would Bloomberg, Gates, or Rhee send their children to schools like this? Thanks for keeping the focus on what is really happening when local control ( through school boards) is removed. We had a superintendent who advocated one of these charter “academies”, but her supporters were voted off the school board. Our officials could only suggest techniques like described here. This also highlights the problem of high attrition rates for teachers. The lead teacher was a 7 year veteran, probably a believer, and 1st and 2nd year teachers have no leverage to dissent.
I have done a wealth of research in neurophysiological learning and as described “Whole Brained Learning” runs contrary to everything I’ve ever read. Learning requires an emotional context, it requires movement and should be active. It requires music. This type of school is abhorrent to me and can be described in just two words: Child abuse. We know that the high level “Reformers” send their kids to expensive private schools where there is little or no standardized testing, where the curricula is rich and invigorating and where music, movement/exercise and are are crucial segments of the academic day, just as they are in Finland, Denmark, Japan and most other developed nations. “Action Based Learning”, “Project Adventure”, “Fit4Learning” “SPARK” and similar programs enhance and stimulate learning. Most of all they instill a love for curiosity, independence, insight and innovative thinking, the concepts that all parents want for their children. Love this teacher and my wish for her is that someday she will be in a place where she is appreciated and where her skills and her love for teaching can be put to real use. Administrators of the Michelle Rhee philosophy should be settled gently down in the middle of the Sahara, where they can value order and quiet. Classrooms should be active and noisy!
Even beyond the chilling Cultural Revolution style of disciplining and brainwashing children is the sheer stupidity of the principal who didn’t approve of the marvelous selection of classical children’s books you brought into the classroom. Annabel, you deserve recognition and gratitude for writing those copious notes and sharing your horrible experience with those what care about such things. When i think back to my own free-wheeling education in the ’50’s and the caring, always funny teachers I had, I realize how lucky I am today and how soulless education has become for many. But, Annabel, you will land a great job and make a wonderful difference in this world and, while you are at it, you can publish a very important book based on your experience.
Mao’s “Little Red Book” all over again but in America.
And most of us know what happened in China—Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” that caused millions of teachers to kill themselves to escape the persecution. When Mao died in 1976, literacy had fallen to 20% and China had no public school system left.
Under Deng Xiaoping’s leadership, China had to start over from scratch to rebuild its public schools and introduce a consumer driven, market economy to replace pure socialism. Today, in Shanghai, signs over classroom doors say something like: “There is more than one answer to each question.” Challenging students to think outside the box the fake ed reformers in the US are building for our children.
It’s almost as if China is moving toward where the US once was a few decades ago before the Walton family, Bill Gates, the Koch brothers, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg. G. W. Bush, Obama and Hedge Fund billionaires decided they wanted to take over the democratically run public schools and profit off the taxpayers who fund them while turning our children into little robots similar to Mao’s teenage Red Guard.
China had to survive Mao. The US has to survive a flock of Maos.
You should be more careful with your words, Comrade. If I didn’t know any better, I might think that you were speaking out against Excellence in Education!
LOL
Good one.
Yes, this is exactly how the denunciations worked during the Cultural Revolution. Kids were encouraged to turn in their teachers and parents. You could be accused of being a a closet capitalist depending how you held a cup of tea.
However, in this case, “Excellence in Education” translates into blind obedience, very high salaries for CEOs and profits for shareholders—the hidden translation for all of the false reformers fancy titles.
What a nightmare. In what grade does this school teach the children to click their heels together, responding “Heil!” To the teacher’s “Seig!”?
This is the reason I opened my own school where it is okay to think differently. A school that encourages individual thought and applauds students who think outside the box. It is awesome to hear teenagers discuss the Bill of Rights and how it applies to them or to discuss different ways to improve the environment even if it is not on my lesson plans. If we would teach our students to think for themselves can you imagine how different our world would be?
With just a few different details, this could be the charter my daughter teaches in, in Harlem. She’s in her second year. She would love to leave but can’t find anything else. So she does her best to apply what she can from her studies and from her heart. It’s tragic what these schools are doing and I’m not sure there’s even any evidence that it succeeds on any level. Is there? I mean, can anyone say, “yes, it’s harsh, but look at how much the children are learning!”
LGC.. this unfortunately could be many a school. Sadly, the days of a purposefully “messy” classroom that encourages student engagement and inquiry with some structure but no top down regimentation … those days are being suffocated by “REFORM”. I was on a long bus ride last week and sat quiety reading most of the trip. Toward the end I discovered that this young woman (she told me she was 26) and I had taught within 2 miles of one another in the public school system of the same county. She had, however, recently moved to NYC and had been living there for two years. Shocking… she was an administrator at a charter school at age 26. I casually asked her how long she had taught before entering her current position and she told me she had taught for 4 years and coached a year.”Young and impressionable and willing to drink the Kool Aid” must be a requirement for teaching in these “Ed Reform” days.
A public ed radio program with Kavitha Cardoza investigated two DC middle schools – Deal and DC Prep recently. The interview infuriated me as the latter school focused soley on “academics” (their definition must be their own view of how to study ELA, Science and Math) and the school took out PE, Music, Art entirely from the curriculum etc… All I can wonder, in the name of getting the almighty test scores, this school is DENYING STUDENTS ENGAGEMENT WITH IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF OUR WORLD. So how can this possibly BE GOOD for the mind?????
http://wamu.org/news/14/03/27/can_the_success_dcs_best_middle_schools_be_replicated
Maybe they are just role playing.
Teaching kids what it’s like
to live in a totalitarian state.
LOL
If that’s the case, it’s a very effective lesson.
Why? How? Four letters: ALEC. Four words: American Legislative Exchange Council.
Celebrated 40th birthday (b.1973) at the uber fancy Chicago Palmer House Hilton last summer. Was there a large protest? You bet! Did the press cover it? Not by a long shot. Long story short: schools like these are part of The Grand Plan to Kochold us & WalMartize our children. WE are the solution. Do EVERYTHING you can in your communities, villages, suburbs, neighborhoods, towns & cities to STOP the opening of these schools and the ALEC-bought legislators who would retain and make new laws allowing such schools to replace the REAL public schools. Work locally, & the movement will spread, just as the opt-out movement has/continues to grow(n).
Yes, WE can and yes, we WILL!
Annabel, I feel sorry for you. It is sad that you spent one day in this hell hole of a school. It is all so crazy these days. The schools are abusive and stupid . Good luck.
I had an assistant principal like your principal. Very difficult.
Thanks for the vocabulary game idea, though. I think it will be very helpful as I teach reading.
All the best to you- keep looking, you’ll find your place.
Thank you for writing about your experience. I taught at a “no excuses” charter school in Brooklyn for a year. It was the most frustrating and disturbing experience of my life. The ridiculously punitive disciplinary system enforced by a teaching staff of young white recent college graduates felt like a mission to “tame the savages.” The students were forced to lose all individuality and become a white persons ideal of a perfect representation of the black race.
In the end, the school claims that 100% of the student to a four year college. What they don’t tell you about are the numerous students (particular males) that are discarded because they could not be tamed by demerits, detentions and suspensions for speaking without raising their hand or not looking at a classmate when they are speaking or slumping in their chair or speaking out of turn or resting their hand on their chin or talking in the hall.
I have always wanted to tell my story. I applaud you for doing it.
As a retired teacher from a high-performing public elementary school, I found this description of your experience so sad. Had your principal ever been in a classroom as a teacher? What was done to you is shameful and would not have happened in most schools. Please do not let this prevent you from teaching. There are schools where you will find the support a teacher needs as he/she begins his/her career. You will be a wonderful teacher!
While this is to the extreme, I prefer it over the anarchy that exists in most schools today–where little teaching occurs due to disruptive students who have no real consequences.
Surely there is some middle ground…
“MOST” schools really??
I agree that there are many disruptive students, but where is your empiricism and data that show that most schools have the level of disruption you imply?
Yours is a blanket statement and shows, by the fair import of its words, a reckless disregard for critical thinking . . . . .
Also, an education based mostly on rote memorization, which definitely has its rightful place, is an acutely incomplete education.
Use your head, Jamamiss, or was there something I missed, Jama? . . . . . .
I agree. Don’t issue a blanket statement and stereotype all the public schools. I taught for most of my thirty years (1975 – 2005) as a teacher in schools in a mostly poverty ridden Latino barrio where violent street gangs ruled the streets at night and sometimes in the day. Between 70 – 80% of the students were on free or reduced breakfast and/or lunch.
And, yes there were classes that offered disruptive challenges but in every class I taught for those thirty years there were also students who were not disruptive and who paid attention to the teaching (from all ethnic and racial groups) and worked to learn and some of the classes I taught had few if any disruptive challenges to nip in the bud. And even in that community and environment a small percentage of students went to college after high school graduation and some graduated from college.
As the teacher/administrator (not me—I taught English and journalism) who handled in-house, daily suspensions out of one small room documented (he had access to all the referrals from 100 teachers): 5% of the students earned more than 90% of the annual average of 20,000 referrals written for disruptive behavior in that high school’s classrooms.
5% does not equal 100%. But that 5% can be really loud and disruptive making it appear that things are falling apart.
…and so it goes. As a teacher, I can empathize with Ms. Lee. I’ve been there, done that, and could not wait to leave. Don’t understand how a principal could have that much effect on a teacher? I went from Teacher of the Year to threats of termination and being called a poor teacher the next…by a principal who wasn’t qualified to be in a position of leadership, never mind a classroom. Now, I’ve decided that this year is my last. I’ve had my fill of the oxymoron called “Brain-based Learning”, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top (of where? Who knows.), and Common Core (more like Common Cra*). Every year or so, some new hack trumpets about the next “silver bullet” designed to turn all our children into geniuses, heal the sick, and cure baldness. I no longer care – my caring has been torn out of me by a monolithic bureaucracy that only sees dollars and numbers, and not the developing of thinking and truly caring for students.
Wow… On the bright side you now have a strong resume if you ever want to teach in North Korea. The really sad thing is that this school is probably promoting its methods to the childrens parents as comparable to elite schools for upper class kids. And the sad truth is that the education for many, if not most, children of wealthy families is exactly the opposite: initiative and freedom are valued above obedience and rote memorization.
I exited the teaching profession for similar reasons, however I was working in a public school in Virginia. Similar things to those reported here are happening every where. A lot of it is from pressure put on teachers to “make” their students succeed to meet NCLB guidelines. The schools are losing their child focus and developmental appropriateness in the name of increasing test scores.
Often schools need such harsh directions and discipline because like it nor not many inner-city children receive little guidance or structure at home.
Harsh discipline is never an ideal solution, at best it’s a temporary bandaid. It can get students to stop doing an unwanted behavior at the moment, but it teaches kids to have animosity towards learning, and it stifles creativity. That’s as true for inner city kids as it is for farm kids.
Wow, I really hope they shut this piece of shit Charter School down asap!!
F (now what does that stand for given your you little adjective with an “sh” blend?),
I share your sentiment exactly, and could not agree more. More power to you! I am serious when I say that.
But can we possibly use more colorful language and phrases than the all too easy “sh#^@^#” word?
The sky will not fall since you’ve expressed it here in this blog, but the blog tries to maintain a certain vim and vigor without using cussing as a common denominator . . . . . Such a style adds to our already credible stance . . . .
As your ally, may I please ask you to possibly be willing to consider that? I hope I am not being a pain, and I do not mean to distract from your excellent and spot on sentiment . . . .
I had a similar experience as a replacement teacher at a charter school in Toledo run by The LEona Group. From what I could tell, the “behavior management plan” was adopted across their schools in Toledo and were an abysmal failure in providing a successful learning environment for these kids. Add to that, there were not enough reading books to go around, so students had to share and no math books at all for the first month that I was there. The books that were finally provided to us did not follow the learning maps/pacing guides that were designed to keep all students and teachers within the grade together (regardless of the fact that I had a classroom of 6th graders, some of whom were reading on a kindergarten or first grade level and some of whom had already read the entire reading book independently before I came on board and easily read on a 9th or 10th grade level. There were no materials or even possibilities for differentiating instruction provided. No specials – students were in the same classroom with me for six to seven hours a day and recess was discouraged. Movement within the classroom made everyone exceptionally nervous because two special needs students would often become violent or aggressive with one another or other students and there was little assistance available with these students. I cannot tell you how happy I was when I walked out the door on the day before Christmas break and warn every teacher who has ever considered working for a charter school to think carefully and ask lots of questions about the type of environment they are walking into.
This is only slightly worse than what I went through in LAUSD. In three years of working for my last principal, I was only complimented four times. The rest of the time was bullying, criticism and disciplinary memos. She won the battles, but she won’t win the war I promise.
It sounds like she practiced the same techniques on you that she wanted you to use on your students. So sorry your were subjected to this type of management. An effective leader doesn’t have to lead with punitive measures.
Diane, your intro to this article sounded as if you were shocked by this style of managing children? Actually it is common practice in all elementary schools, public and charter. This management style is not teaching, but “conditioning”. It is like training circus animals, only these are children and this indoctrination or “brainwashing” is standard in most inner city and Title I Schools for the purpose of breaking the free will of children. For some reason, many people think disadvantaged kids deserve to be punished like criminals and trained like circus animals.
This rigid authoritarian system, known as Schwarze Pädagogik in Germany prior to WWII, is called by many names. In Austin ISD where I work it is called the 3 R’s (which we teachers have nicknamed The Third Reich)! It is also used by the Kipp Charter Schools in Austin. Most parents in Title I School communities do not recognize it as oppressive, since oppression for them is ‘normal”. Since the school calls it “discipline” rather than psychological “abuse” which it is, parents do not seem to notice that it takes away children’s imagination and independence and turns them into Stepford Children.
The stern domineering control of the teachers and the silent robotic movement of the children is chilling to watch in a school. The kids look blank and march chin up in perfect lines with their hands behind their backs and the bubble in their mouths where ever they go. It looks more like a prison than a school. Children spend the entire day without speaking a word to anyone other than responding to teacher questions after raising a hand and being called on. There is never joint communication or spontaneous conversation or interaction among children. Their work is always in isolation.
This form of conditioning or “brainwashing” is creating a society of slave workers and non-thinkers. It is preparing for a dictatorship. People are not shocked because this is now “normal” with Common Core and the testing regime. I suggest that we stop calling ourselves “teachers”, but instead call ourselves “Schutzstaffel”.
This approach to “education” reminds me of Catholic school in the 1960s. Obedience and rote memorization were the methods of the day; humiliation and sometimes physical punishment were the control tools. Catholic schools had the luxury of being able to expel any student who didn’t conform. They could then claim they were better than the public schools that had to accept the disruptive kids, the learning disabled or physically disabled students, etc. And, yes, the goal was to produce “good” workers who would show up on time and do whatever they were told, no questions asked.
Well, now I feel a little better.
Having known several family members who survived such Catholic schools in the 1960s or thereabouts, and seen what kind of people they ACTUALLY turned out to be (regardless of what they were trained to be), I guess there is some hope for the kids who are stuck in those charters.
I love how you expained this form of brainmwashing. Domyou have a blogg or any other articles? Can I follow you on Twitter?
What a horror story.
Mr. Herzog is correct. This school’s methods can be adequately described in two words:
child abuse.
Bob, I’d like to be a little more universal by adding:
Teacher abuse and child abuse.
Many good people were coerced and incentivized into doing horrible things to other good people in times of war and extremist governments. Just look at Cambodia, just look at Germany.
This is an abuse that reachers far beyond the children, but of course, they are the most voiceless and vulnerable, no doubt . . . . .
Bob, as an aside, my wife and I ALWAYS look forward to your postings as much as we do Diane’s. You are a gift to critical thinkers and public education . . . .
Wow, Robert. Speechless here. But thank you.
Horrifying … The USA has truly lost its way in terms of the purpose of education. Have recently been touring LA’s “high performing” schools and unfortunately what I witnessed in schools there was a robotic, scripted, one-size-fits-all education presented by overly enthusiastic Principals and leaders who were desperately presenting false veneers of pride whilst failing to hide their sadness at being forced into such measures by educational systems that value measureables such as testing/data/numbers (in order to set budgets) over conversations, connections and relationship building which in turn builds stronger families, communities, towns and nations. I am deeply saddened for the teacher involved in this story and for the many thousands who have given up on teaching due to being forced into coercing children to sing the right songs and learn the right words. History will not be kind. The canary in the coal mine has died. Diane Ravitch is apparently the only one who heard it.
Welcome to “The Simulation” system of acquired hopelesness performed by principals, leaders and teachers all over the world as a response to the overwhelming imposition of Educational Reforms based on assesments and evaluations for the mere purpose of international measurements and comparisons among children and teachers of inmense and diverse backgrouns.Unequity is the real Commun Core of this story.
People, there is a gray area here between complete rejection of these philosophies and the excessive application described in this charter school– not that the author leads you to believe that. She has had the misfortune of seeing one way these principles can be misapplied that results in the chilling and totalitarian school regime in this (and probably many others within that) corporate network. On the other hand, when your school specializes in students from rough backgrounds without the experience of strong functional classrooms with positive cultures, caring teachers, etc– they need a lot of structure, and they need some time to learn how that structure works and their place within it. I have a classroom that uses some of these techniques (btw the point is wholly missed on WBT here– it’s supposed to be a set of kinesthetic techniques for memorization of low-level concepts to pair with gestures– it makes rote memorization, of which all disciplines have at least a little, a bit more fun and memorable. It doesn’t replace experiential learning or genuine engagement techniques, and I don’t really think it was supposed to) and structures (including a scoreboard paired with a reward system– my kids earn minutes of educational youtube videos) and a flexible but consistent set of positive and negative consequences (with emphasis placed on the former) to encourage students to act in a certain way when we move into guided and independent practice. It’s at these times (approximately 80% of each period) where the classroom is buzzing and active, and it only works during this time because we made agreements on how we would act, and set consequences which we all understand if we don’t. You cannot have learning happen in a noisy classroom unless that noise is made by students who understand that it’s not *noise*, it’s specific and directed learning. Sometimes that can take quite some time to set up– I usually devote several weeks to it, and am not at my goal of 80% collaborative learning time until the middle of first semester. Every tool is a weapon if you hold it wrong; that doesn’t mean you should generalize against these techniques, that when used compassionately and intelligently can be very effective and guide students who are accustomed to having an extremely combative and adversarial relationship with their teachers and schools towards a more open learning stance.
On the other hand, I absolutely do agree that if the person trying to use these techniques or follow these philosophies is themselves racist, classist, or otherwise bigoted, consciously or not, and makes no attempt to monitor those shortcomings and correct for them and prevent them from motivating their choices, that they will trend inexorably towards misapplication and abuse.
Annabel, sending you a huge hug! what a tense atmosphere and what a dissapointing principal… really really not happy reading about it, and it must have been hard to be there and not to have the freedom to teach and share your enthusiasm for life and learning with the kids in your own way. Feels like the exact opposite of Montessory and of what a learning environment should be… thanks for sharing… sorry that the school is not more open minded to actual learning and curiosity and involvement by kids..or teachers. 😦
As someone who worked in a charter school–a terrible one, but definitely not the worst–I was more horrified than I thought possible by your experience. I am amazed that you lasted as long as you did, and wonder how anyone could think those methods were the best use of anyone’s (child’s OR teacher’s) time throughout the course of the school day. I am grateful that you were able to reach the conclusion that YOU were not the problem. I have seen too many teachers, myself included, lose confidence in and passion for a profession that they once loved. I am fortunate to now have a wonderful job at an amazing school with an inspiring principal and I’ve rediscovered my love of teaching. I hope that you are able to do the same. I also hope that your piece pushes someone to take action and attempt to salvage the emotional and educational well-being of those students.
I was a chaperone on a field trip to see a play at a Noble charter school’s auditorium. Charter students were filing out of the auditorium as two busloads of kids from neighborhood public schools were filing in. The kids were in high spirits and were talking animatedly but not too loudly. Noble kids walked out in a single-file line, arm’s length apart, books held across their chests, and I was struck by the wondering and envious looks some shot at the field trippers’s having fun. Other Noble kids faced forward and never glanced back.
programmed fear
I wonder how different this is from schools in North Korea.
I am a kindergarten teacher in Mexico we belong tomthemso called third world and what you have descrived as a bad experience is what is happening here too. This kind of teaching has led us to a lack of values and a general violent citizenship. This is a wrong way, it is like going backwards. If you as a country start teching your kids as third world countries or as dictatorships do you are in danger of loosing the progress and the benefits of a civilized society where human rights an human development will be lost. Please keep on fighting to support your public schools so we can have a role model to follow do not give up what you have achieved, give us some hope by standing for the joy of learning, for the respect of children, for preserving their integrity and dignity, do not let go, please, keep on leading the way so we can refer to you when we try to explain to our authorities what school should be. Please look at this teacher you will love it though it is in spanish. Performance para repensar el rol del docente – El…: http://youtu.be/f00lfICI6s4
Rosa Del C,
Que fantastico que Ud. Esta leyendo este blog en Mexico, and que puede utilizarlo como un recurso para hacer batalla contra los riccos – los riccos en privado y que sirven en todos niveles de gobierno – que quieren controlar la clase media y la clase de trabajadores. Los riccos quieren controlar no solamente nuestro economia, sino la manera en los cuales nosotros penasamos y, ademas, nuestra capacidad para generar el pensamiento critico. Es absolutelemente la verdad aqui, sis dudo.
Sin embargo, voy a pedir a La Senora Ravitch si elle puede formular su blog para estar distribuido en algunos tipos de idiomas, porque yo creo que vale la pena que todo el mundo sabe lo que esta pasando acqui en los estados unidos en no solomente en nuestro sistema de educacion publico, sino lo que pasa en la sociedad por lo general . . . . . Vivan los maestros de education publico acqui y en Mexico!
Muchissimas gracias por dejar su commentario acqui. Me encanta . . . .
Diane, if you are reading this, I wanted to ask you for our friend from Mexico if your blog is distributed world wide in different languages. I know your books are, but I was not sure about the blog.
If not, can the teckkies who administrate your blog give any advice as to how people from other countries can read this empowering site in their own languages?
I am a huge advocate for multi-lingualism and universal access to ideas.
Please advise when and if you can . . . . .
Robert, thank you for your request. I happen to be a Mexican teacher who had the opportunity to be an exchange student so I can read English, unfortunately many others do not so there is a tremendous isolation of knowledge about what is going on not only in USA but all over the world regarding Educational Reforms and the effect on teachers, students and the future of Global Education. I strongly believe although these themes are adressed from a regional point of view their real impact strikes far off what we imagine. Lets start a World Wide Coalition.
To reach the Spanish speaking and reading audience in and outside of the US, we need someone to translate this information into short three minute or less videos released through YouTube that anyone may embed in a Blog post.
Rosa?
I agree, because this would allow not only mexican teachers but the spanish speacking world . I must explin to you that for us teachers in Mexico the reality regarding the Educaton Reform is different than in USA. Here we were not asked if we agreed or not to the Reform because we have a central educational system meaning we ought to obbey the rules and not to be allowed to question them, though we share with you the frustration and the same Teachers reputation to make them look like they are not good enough, using the slogan ” Teachers Professionalisation” which means that after attending special teacher’s schools called “Normal Schools for Teachers” they are considered not professionals. So we are ongoing a campaing to discredit the teaching profession in order to break down the teachers union.
GERM is not just happening in America. It’s happening in other countries too.
Rosa, forgive me, but my attempt to write to you in Spanish was my way of doing some much needed practice in the language for me, not because I assumed you would need translation.
Thank you for your note, and, yes, I agree, these reforms are a big code for busting, preventing, and eliminating unions and collective bargaining, so much of which determines learning conditions for students, which becomes teachers’ working conditions . . . .
Rosa, I’d also like to add here that in the United States, teachers and administrators were not and are not being asked byt policy makers whether or not they agree with the reform policies. Educator voices, like Mexico, have been virtually absent. The policies here are also meant to break down and eventually eliminate teacher unions and unions in other sectors. The United States right now is going through some very sinister times, but there is hope if the people can come to consensus and houdna ll their elected officials, as Diane as encouraged very strongly. Our emocracy here still works in terms of voting and communicating with elected officials. But to do that, voters here first have to KNOW the issues accurately and thoroughly and then they have to be active in their civic participation by voting and communicating non-stop with their elected officials and officials to be. Voters can also entertain the notion of running for office themselves. . . . . . . Our government had become harshly de-localized and top-down like never before, but out democratic apparatus for getting people in and out of office wtill works if people will bother to operate the levers, press the buttons, and communicate with officials. . . . . Truth be known . . . .
Rosa and others: Please forgive the massive typos in my last note to Rosa. . . I was, as usual writing in a rush because I have so much work from my teaching job to do today, and I try and fit in whatever commentary I can when I can.
chilling
Rich is a relative concept, In Mexico a teacher in general earns about 700 dlls per month and a small car costs about 400 monthly so compared to us you are rich so it is a matter of “The big fish eat the small fish”. I think this is not about being rich but a matter of grit and how corporations want to make a busines out of the school system and how the corporativism view of education imposes mass production of workers and manufactrers all over the world.
Rosa, amiga mia, so WELL PUT! It’s a fuedal system all over again, only this time, it is created through propaganda and mind control . . . .
If people go into teaching because they harbor a need to have power over others then this kind of environment will happen. I taught in a city school system 35 years ago and this description of the charter classroom was like reading something I could have written then. My principal told me that I was to follow the teachers guide word for word since I had only taught one year, we used Assertive Discipline which created an atmosphere of distrust, not one of community, we tested children every week and got print-outs back from the central office so we could reteach and retest. I squeezed choices and play into the curriculum where ever I could, but it wasn’t supported by the principal. She scolded me in front of my class when they talked in the hall, she yelled at the teachers in the lunchroom if they talked too loud, and put bulletin boards in the hall at the top of her “must have teachers do” list. I lasted 3 years at the school and learned a lot about what school should not be.
I went on to teach in schools that were much kinder to teachers and children, but it is always up to the teacher’s sense of moral autonomy to question what is being mandated and be a professional. The author of this article was obviously working for children and will hopefully keep looking for opportunities to teach.
Welcome to “The Simulation” system of acquired hopelesness performed by principals, leaders and teachers all over the world as a response to the overwhelming imposition of Educational Reforms based on assesments and evaluations for the mere purpose of international measurements and comparisons among children and teachers of inmense and diverse backgrouns.Unequity is the real Commun Core of this story.
Made me cry.
I was considering putting my kids(entering 2nd&6th grand respectively) into a “new” IL TEXAS Charter school(Keller, TX) and my younger son was accepted while my other son has been wait-listed. They are both wait-listed at another well established charter school, Westlake Academy, which is the ONLY one like it in the entire state of TEXAS. It’s an IAB school as well. The tour of this school was wonderful and I’d rather my boys go HERE instead, but since my recent delve into wanting MORE information on CHARTER SCHOOLS, I came, purely by accident, to the Moyers interview with Diane Ravitch, and I was completely blindsided by her information to the point of NOT really sure I want my boys to attend ANY Charter schools. Wow! I look forward to finding out more.
Annabel, I regret that your excellent qualifications as a trained teacher, plus genuine enthusiasm for your students’ learning and attempts to provide a rich classroom environment, were criticized and rejected by this charter school. I hope that you will stay in the profession and find a school and colleagues that you.
So – a little background on my recent experience with the type of crushing, negative school philosophy and practice that you describe:
I have 14 years experience as a K12 teacher, with certifications at the Elementary and Secondary (ELA) levels. I’ve worked as a Title I Math Specialist and, for two years, had a self-contained classroom for students with cognitive and physical challenges. I’ve trained teachers and developed curriculum with the Peace Corps and taught undergraduate pre-service students about best-practice technology integration into their lesson plans.
I relocated to New Orleans a year ago wanting to support the city’s efforts to completely redesign its school system. I expected to find vigorous professional development for teachers, robust curricula and enriched school environments based on sound research in Child Development, Teaching and Learning. 90% of New Orleans public schools are run by private Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) who receive pubic funding through government contracts, but are exempt from state oversight. Over 95% of the children attending these public charter schools are black and eligible for Free an Reduced Lunches.
While hailed as an “education miracle”, to be emulated in inner-cities around the country, the results are mixed. Longitudinal results are not yet available, and raw data from each of the CMOs is not made available. To personally experience this complex network of private providers, their hiring policies and educational philosophies, I participated in two job interviews as a volunteer working with “failing” students. At neither interview was I asked about my teaching experience and qualifications. What I found out shocked me …..
Q: “Describe your idea of a manager-subordinate relationship”
Q: “How would you feel about being observed multiple times throughout the day?”
Q: “How do you respond to criticism?”
This KIPP charter used no technology in its school (“We don’t believe it’s necessary”) and did not believe in individualized learning – only whole-class “keep up or fail” instruction.The majority of staff were TFA recruits with no background in teaching, recently graduated from Ivy League schools in subjects other than Education. Nobody on staff was professionally trained to work with failing students and the school had no plans for designing and implementing a Special Ed program. Since renewal of their government funding was driven by annual LEAP scores, and failing students lowered these, they were recruiting community volunteers to compensate for this total lack of program design and on-staff expertise.
My second KIPP “interview” at a different school never happened. Instead, on arrival, I was taken upstairs to a large Math lab equipped with 50 desktop computers and informed that my “first class” would be arriving in 20 minutes. The teacher who stayed with me to “help out” was a TFA observer who kept jumping up and down and doing a strange clapping to enforce the “Level 0 policy” (total silence throughout the 50-minute session) and ensured that students lined up with all toes pointing forward and hands by their sides before being led through the hallways to their next class. My inquiries about coordinating instruction through access to classroom teachers and student performance data, was ignored.
I accepted neither job.
Your experience is every experienced teacher’s worst nightmare. I hope you found an acceptable job somewhere else.
Reading your story breaks my heart. It just reiterates what I said when I took a grad class last semester as an introduction to teaching. Children in the urban and rural setting are becoming social experiments. Someone has to ring the alarm in what is happening. There is a public school in my town that has a sign out front that says “Data Driven School.” I can’t help but wonder if the parents whose children attend this school have any idea about the true meaning behind these words. Thank you for sharing. As someone who is applying to a Post-Bac program to teach I will bookmark this page.
Positively Hitleresque. This is how Nazi Germany gained such a foothold.
In my experience, these boot camp schools are littering the urban landscape. Black and brown children are treated with such harshness and false discipline that would even get a reaction by a Hitler Youth Group leader, and the quality of education is ALL TEST DRIVEN. The corporate EdReformers know they can get away with this outrageous nonsense because these children come from poor urban Black families where they are sure no one will ‘bother’ to call them on it. Racism kicked up notches! EdReformers are convinced that children in poverty need structure because they are part of an underclass that EdReformers always wanted to ‘fix’. These children are being stripped and prodded and punished for their parents’ poverty and lack of education. These EdReformers know exactly what these ‘uncivilized’ and uneducated children need. THESE PEOPLE…OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN… Disgusting! Harmful and disturbing! If the children manage to survive this type of school, and survive life in urban America, what type of humanity will they be in touch with? Where do they get the humanity needed to care about others? What type of teacher will they be? What type of parent?
EdReformers know that this type of school would never ‘fly’ in white communities. Let’s get real! These Black kids are being punished for having chosen the wrong parents at birth. For choosing poverty as a lifestyle. For living in dangerous communities. For low test scores. For low graduation rates. For gangs…….List is a mile long.
Our nation continues to avoid the Real Issues and forces quick harmful fixes on innocent children. On top of that, 22year old TFAtypes are willing to save the world and are given such outrageous ways to help other human beings. If this were the Peace Corps, these TFAtypes would wonder if they were secretly assigned to N.Korea and no one told them.
And the US wants to be number 1 in education? Are you kidding? We are destroying all of it! Gates/Duncan/Obama & Co. will be long gone with their $M while our nation suffers even more. Frightening!
What this unsuspecting teacher experienced was very difficult to read, unbelievable to comprehend and amazing that she survived. Please be very selective in your next job, and I hope you will Not Leave the Teaching Profession. Good teachers must survive! All children must survive this Third Reich Obama Education Reform!
If Finland were not so bloody cold, we’d all be there by now.
“Dear teacher”? Instantly rang a bell: “Dear Leader”…wouldn’t be surprised if more of that frightening ‘pedagogy’ came from that particular authoritarian culture. As I grew up in the DC area, I’m pretty sure that isn’t how it works at Sidwell Friends.
Thank you for your hard-obtained yet extremely useful, factual testimony. Progressives across the country need to band together and follow your lead in making the truth known and standing up to it.
…that’s ‘standing up to the dishonest, incompetent, silencing structures of the powers that be.’ Not standing up to the truth : )
And since I wrote, I’ve kept thinking about how similar the ‘criticism/self-criticism’ practices that prevailed in mid-20th-century USSR and Maoist China are to those criticism meetings you endured.
I was thinking the same thing about life under Stalin, Putin for that matter, and Mao. Is the US really becoming like that.
Sadly, yes.
And yet China has been moving away from Maoism since 1976 and the Chinese are gaining more freedoms as the country prospers while the US seems to be losing its freedom.
For instance,Chinese now travel to other countries in numbers more than any other country on the earth.
More Chinese are on the Internet than any other country and from what I’m being told, it isn’t that difficult to slip through the cheesecloth that’s the cyber nanny in China. People do it all the time.
If the CCP bans a movie or a US TV show, a tourist brings a copy back and its pirated to be sold on the black market. I read about one censored US TV show where the star of the show traveled to China to see it as a tourist and thousands of his fans were waiting at the airport when he arrived for a show that supposed to be censored in China. Say what!
And if the CCP censors an internet site, within minutes, hundreds of new sites usually pop up protesting the censorship by posting the same material. The CCP censors can’t keep up with the exercise of free will the Chinese are demonstrating.
[…] schools — primarily, but not exclusively, “no-excuses” charter schools — it has become fashionable to train new teachers to manage their classrooms using identical language and procedures. Teachers […]